Eight Tips for Deploying Wi-Fi at Work - Slide 3

The popularity of Wi-Fi has meant a proliferation of wireless access points (AP) and routers available at extremely competitive prices. In fact, it is entirely possible to purchase three or four consumer APs for the cost of wiring up a dozen Ethernet ports. As you can imagine, management would be tempted to calculate the cost of deploying Wi-Fi using the typical home wireless router as a metric.

Seasoned network administrators will tell you that using network equipment designed and sold to home users is not generally a good idea for business. Usually undetected to the average user, Paul has seen consumer network equipment, including wireless APs, freeze, suffer from erratic performance or crash. He has had to reboot his wireless router, and has also seen bugs in network switches cause intermittent network slowdowns or other inexplicable problems.

Wireless APs designed for business are built to more stringent standards. Paul is not saying that problems cannot occur with business-grade networking gear, of course. He’s simply pointing out the value they offer.

In need of a new router, Paul Mah used the opportunity to explore the various wireless solutions on the market, even as he hunted for a replacement. He notes that while wireless technology offers a world of convenience, choosing the right hardware can make the difference between heightened productivity or frustration due to intermittent or poor performance. From his findings, he’s highlighted some tips that businesses should be aware of before deploying Wi-Fi networking in their organizations.

Network teams are investigating and adopting emerging technologies like SDN and 40 Gb ethernet networks on a limited basis, while UC and BYOD are approaching the threshold of mainstream adoption ... More >>